Chapter 237: Nightmare

It was like time stopped for a second. 

Everyone was utterly frozen in their place. Darcel and Aniela's eyes were nearly bulged out of their sockets, their mouths were fearfully quivering, and their arms were spasming.

Their brains entirely lagged, being in complete shock over the brutality of what had just transpired. 

Masami was in the same state of shock. Her body wasn't pierced into, but pain like no other was washing over her.

She stood motionless, gazing with bewildered eyes over the horrifying scene. Her two foxtails weren't rhythmically swirling like it usually does, being entirely still like Masami as if their strings got cut off.

The fears that would always be Masami's worst nightmare had abruptly come true right in front of her eyes. And she didn't even know how to react. It was like her brain shut down altogether for this moment.

All the while disbelief hanged between the trio, the yellow-eyed woman remained indifferent and still. 

The two people she had her mind on day in and out were now being savagely pierced by her cold hands. Moreover, the yellow-eyed woman wasn't affected at all by her own brutality. She didn't even put much thought into coming to this decision. 

The yellow-eyed woman was absolutely assured in every step she took, no matter how cruel it may appear.

After that mind-boggling silent second, Darcel and Aniela had finally felt an unbearable pain! Every part of their bodies began uncontrollably spasming as an excruciating agony course throughout their entire being.

Staring into the yellow-eyed woman's face was like staring into the depths of a yellow-eyed demon. 

Darcel and Aniela experienced numerous tremendous pain in their journey. But there wasn't a single moment that can compare to this. Not even when they fought in the grueling hell trials did they undergo pain like this. 

Although the yellow-eyed woman is simply piercing their hearts, she was actually bringing upon a pain even worse than that.

Overwhelming energy rushed out of the yellow-eyed woman and wreaked utter havoc in Darcel and Aniela's bodies. Their Qi, soul energy, and bloodline powers simply couldn't compare to the yellow-eyed woman's immeasurable power.

Her immense power tore through every defense Darcel and Aniela's had in their bodies. 

And it didn't just stop at tearing their defenses. 

The yellow-eyed woman's unfathomable energy had then torn right into their Martial Veins and directly invaded their soulscape spaces.

In Darcel's soulscape space, his Darkness essence and black flaming essence got utterly overshadowed by the yellow-eyed woman's energy. The same process happened in Aniela's soulscape space, and both her and Darcel's soul's core were revealed to the yellow-eyed woman.

And when seeing their soul's cores, the yellow-eyed woman paused. 

She has a direct link to her energy which allows her to see all around the duo's soulscape space in her mind. 

When coming to their soulscape space, there were numerous things the yellow-eyed woman was expecting. The foulness she sensed from them already gave her ideas on what to consider. 

But she wasn't prepared at all for Darcel and Aniela's current soul's core appearance. 

They both had their inborn essence forming significant parts of their soul's core. However, there was one striking aspect that caused even the yellow-eyed woman to pause in slight shock. 

Permanently nestled in Darcel and Aniela's soul's core was the profound green hue from the Chaotic Shards!

Compared to how fearless the yellow-eyed woman was acting before, she had a complete one-eighty when encountering their Chaotic Shards. 

Her senses were immeasurable more powerful than anyone on this Mortal Planet, and she could immediately tell those Chaotic Shards isn't something to be treated lightly.

The yellow-eyed woman merely sensed the Chaotic Shard energy from afar, attempting to connect the dots on what it truly was. 

'Could this be? A treasure from the God Realms? But why would a level like this show up on a Mortal Planet….no matter. Since they have it, it will help them survive in the future.'

The yellow-eyed woman didn't particularly have all day to identify the Chaotic Shard energy in her position. Shifting this topic in her mind for later, the yellow-eyed woman guided her energy to Darcel and Aniela's soul's core, making sure to avoid their Chaotic Shards parts.

Inside Darcel's soul's core, the yellow-eyed woman's energy plunged deep inside until it reached a certain point. She had eventually come upon a single Black feather that had numerous Darkness strings attached to it.

'....I expected no less.' The yellow-eyed remarked to herself before sending over her energy to overwhelm the Black feather. 

This Black feather was actually Darcel's Darkness Soul link! It holds all of the numerous soul connections he formed throughout his journey.

And almost immediately, the yellow-eyed woman's energy began to heavily affect nearly all of his Darkness strings. After only a couple of seconds, most of the Darkness strings got ruined to a point where they were almost torn off from the Black Feather.

Out of all the Darkness strings, only three remained firm against the yellow-eyed woman's powerful energy. 

Despite the immeasurable power she wields, the yellow-eyed woman notices she couldn't so casually ruin these three Darkness strings.

And if she stubbornly persisted in doing so, she knows the exact consequences that would come. 

'It's her….and her. But….the third? Could she be around here? Hm, to think you could accomplish that, Darcel.'

If Darcel could actually hear the yellow-eyed woman's voice, he would be absolutely shocked at the praising tone she had. 

The yellow-eyed woman was displeased with many things about Darcel's current state, but his Darkness Soul link actually made a small amount of respect rise within her.

At the same time, in Aniela's soulscape space, she had no significant comments. Although, the yellow-eyed woman did remark seeing the same firm Darkness string in her soul's core.

Just like in Darcel's soul core, Aniela's Darkness string stayed firm even against the yellow-eyed woman's overwhelming energy. 

While all the chaos was occurring in the duo's souls, a few concentrated drops of yellow blood had flowed in their Martial Veins and bloodstream.

Several seconds had already passed since the yellow-eyed woman started this whole process. But Darcel and Aniela felt like hours slowly slipped by as the pain only increased with each passing nanosecond.

They could safely say this is what actual hell is like. Both of them so desperately wanted to shriek bloodcurdling roars. And yet, no sounds could come from their mouths. 

Darcel and Aniela thought this torture couldn't possibly get any worse.

But right then, the duo felt something far more nightmarish than any amount of pain they were experiencing. 

Their powerful bloodlines that they so heavily rely on, something they thought could never be affected. Darcel and Aniela were feeling their bloodlines becoming gradually weaker! 

The duo couldn't accurately say how it was becoming weaker. Still, they could just feel their bloodlines becoming less potent as the seconds trickled by.

Their fundamental standard of strength was getting slowly changed. And the only thing Darcel and Aniela could do was helplessly watch the yellow-eyed woman do it. 

Immense unwillingness birthed inside Darcel and Aniela's souls.

No matter what, they can't just let the power they so desperately need get ruin! Even if it's a small change, it will majorly impact all future decisions they would need to make. 

Although it was futile, Darcel and Aniela began to struggle to gather any scrape of energy to stop this.

Their desires to refuse to roll over and let the yellow-eyed woman have their way with them started to make their Chaotic Shard react a bit. 

The green hue infused in their soul's core suddenly started to slowly pulsate in response to Darcel and Aniela's desperate pleas.

'Hm? Is this another layer of protection? Thankfully, I already purged nearly all that needed to be purged. Just a couple more seconds….' 

The yellow-eyed woman immediately sensed their Chaotic Shards beginning to pulsate. She already calculated how long she needed and wasn't worried about their Chaotic Shards reacting quick enough to interfere. 

And after only a few more seconds, the yellow-eyed woman swiftly tore her hand out of Darcel and Aniela's hearts.

Blood wildly gushed everyone like a horrifying blood rain dance, dying her and Masami's bodies in it. 

Immediately when the yellow-eyed woman tore her hand out of them, Darcel and Aniela lost consciousness. Their eyes snapped shut, and their bodies collapsed backward as if they were dead. 

But the occasional frightening twitch from their bodies still showed there was some sign of life in them. Even if there was a terrifyingly large hole on where their hearts should be.

"Ah-ah-"

A weak-sounding voice stole the yellow-eyed woman's attention. For the first time since coming here, she had finally turned her gaze over to the grief-ridden Masami. 

A look of absolute horror was firmly plastered on Masami's face.

Her mind was thrown into the depths of despair as she helplessly gazed upon Darcel and Aniela's bloody twitching bodies. The two people she grew close to in such a short amount of time lay before her in a horrific position.

The only reason she hasn't completely broken down was because her Spirit Sense could still sense a bit of lifeforce in them. Still, this didn't lessen the immense grief and rising overflowing rage from bubbling within her.

Before Masami met the duo, she could only really say she loves her grandmother with all of her heart. 

And though she gradually got accustomed to a lonely life since childhood, she still held a strong desire to just be liked or loved by anyone else.

Even for the lowest of talents in her sect, they still had some sort of family or close relationships to fall back on. 

And despite initially only having a slightly worse talent than them, Masami only had her grandmother to rely on. Yet, it wasn't like Masami could consult her grandmother all of the time because of how busy she always is. 

However, all of this bleak loneliness changed when she met Darcel and Aniela.

Even on their first meeting, it was like an instant connection form between them, and it was inevitable for their love to blossom. The laughs, the joys, the hardships, the passion they share, it all was the best time of her life.

And when Darcel and Aniela so boldly claim they will take on her entire sect just for her, Masami knew they would stay a team forever. 

But now, Masami felt like her perfect reality had just violently shattered into a million pieces.

Deep inside her, she felt like something powerful, something very dark, was trying to break free from her body. The tremendous rage of her seeing her precious lovers slowly die was about to completely break out of her.

But before anything could happen. 

'Pu-Chi!' 

Blood spurted out of her Masami's chest as the yellow-eyed woman tore her hand right into her heart. Any rise of rage and power quickly bubbling inside her had vanished against the yellow-eyed woman's energy.

The yellow-eyed woman indifferently looked down on Masami, and a slight twinkle swirled in her eyes about her.